Bread Baking Basics

Cooking tips for the caring cook.

Bread Baking Basic Cooking Tips

Most breads freeze beautifully. So if you are cooking for one or two, you can serve half a loaf and freeze the other half for later.

Frozen bread makes the best toast and french toast, no need to thaw just dip in egg and fry.

Speed the rising time of dough when making rolls, etc. Preheat the oven to 200-degrees for one minute; turn off the oven. Place the dough, covered by a clean dish towel, in the oven and let rise until almost double in size.

Instead of rolling out biscuit dough with a rolling pin, form the dough into a 2-inch diameter log. Then just cut off slices and bake as usual.

Enhance the flavor of quick breads by storing them overnight before slicing and serving.

To help prevent sogginess of hot sandwiches, place a paper towel under the bread while microwave heating.

When making whole grain breads, use freshly ground flour whenever possible, this will also increase nutritional value in your bread.

To make homemade bread have a shiny crust, brush the top with white vinegar a few minutes before removing the bread from the oven.

Keep fresh-from-the-oven dinner rolls warmer longer by lining the bread basket
with aluminum foil and covering it with a napkin.

To "glue" seeds on home baked bread, use a double dose of egg white wash. Before baking, brush the risen dough with egg white and top with the seeds. Then five minutes before the bread is done, brush it with egg whtie again and finish baking. The seeds stick (even when sliced) and the bread shines.

For soft, shiny crust on bread, brush loaves with margarine or butter before baking.

For glossy, crispy crust, brush before baking with milk, water, or beaten egg.

Next time you bake sweet bread or muffins, try greasing and sugaring pans instead of greasing and flouring. Everyone will love the slight hint of added sweetness.

What do you do when you lose that bread tie on your loaf of bread? Don't panic looking for another one. Just take that plastic bread wrapper and do a twist. To keep it where you want it to be, slip the sleeve backwards over the loaf of bread.

To freshen stale bread, sprinkle a little milk over it and place it in a moderately hot oven for 15 minutes. The crust will be crispier and the bread tastier.

Hate the smell of broccoli cooking? Place the florets in a steamer and toss in a few cubes of that stale bread into the cooking water. The bread absorbs the odor.

How About a Duo-Tone Sandwich?

Mix white bread with whole wheat; or wheat
with rye; or sourdough with pumpernickel. Use your imagination --
the combinations are endless!